How Zendesk customers gain value with ticketing and real-time support

Expectations for the speed of support have skyrocketed. With literal instant messaging available between loved ones, friends, and coworkers, it’s an unsurprising evolution to expect instant responses from the companies we buy from. The number of U.S. online shoppers who use live chat has increased from 38% to 58% over the last five years. More than 2.5 billion consumers use messaging apps, and according to a 2016 Nielsen study, 56 percent of Facebook Messenger users would rather message a business than call.

Instant communication is the expectation when it comes to support, and when more than 53% of shoppers abandon their online purchase if they can’t find a quick answer, real-time communication in addition to traditional email support can help prevent customers from churning. At Zendesk, our customers that pair Zendesk Chat with Zendesk Support have noted that they benefit from increased sales, reduced support costs, and increased CSAT.

Providing instant and contextual help

Take Uber for example. While most of Uber’s support volume comes through the Uber app, the company began to experiment with other support channels over the years. Ashley Bradford, Global Chat Support Program Manager at Uber, was on the Boston team in 2014 when they selected Zendesk Chat and began running pilots, supporting about 100 interactions the first week.

Bradford oversees Uber’s expanding use of live chat for new driver onboarding and UberEATS. Chat support agents number in the thousands and handle more than 30,000 chats per week in the U.S. alone. “Chat is great for onboarding new drivers, empowering agents to answer many questions in one interaction,” Bradford said. “It’s really fast.”

Le Tote was able to offer more personalized care to their customers by setting triggers based on actions that a customer takes on the website. For example, a trigger prompts agents to reach out to customers who are lingering longer than average on the checkout page. 86% of consumers welcome proactive assistance when they encounter problems, and live chat enables support teams to provide help before someone needs to asks for it—all while providing instant and contextual help by putting chat on specific pages.

Increase your team’s productivity

Using Support and Chat together allows your agents to chat with customers right next to where they handle tickets without switching tabs or tools, which means faster resolution times. With Support, you can also set a business rule to follow any missed chat with an automated email to the customer—which could be the difference between gaining a new customer or giving a negative experience.

Having one unified platform creates better experiences for agents and increases their overall productivity. Beyond that, having one unified system also has benefits for admins by providing them end-to-end reporting so they can get comprehensive view of what channels are doing great for them. Datto is one company that takes advantage of Zendesk’s unified support system. Jason Elston, Datto’s senior director of North American tech support, said the Support and Chat analytics allow him to track metrics by agent, location, and other data points. “We’re able to see trends,” he said. “That level of granularity allows us to understand where and why we aren’t performing as well as we’d like. It also helps us to see where we are performing well, and we can learn from that.”

Versatility for the long run

Furthermore, by adding live chat to their online store as an additional channel, Spartan Race saw a 27% increase in retail sales and a 97% customer satisfaction rating for live chat contacts. Varney added, “We’re getting through tickets faster, and customers are happier because we’re able to respond more quickly.” Live chat enables agents to help several customers at the same, which can drive down time to resolution and can increase efficiency for your support time, leaving room to strengthen the customer relationship and increase sales.

Live chat is versatile—it helps with support but can also help increase conversions and sales through your website. Not only that, according to Zendesk’s Benchmark Report, live chat has the highest satisfaction rate amongst all customer service channels. 92% of all chat support interactions result in a satisfied customer, which is why offering chat is so often coveted by successful customer service departments. So what are you waiting for?

Tune in to the webinar “Tapping into the powerful combination of Support and Chat, featuring MeUndies” to learn more about how Zendesk Support and Chat work better together.